North Port (FL)

Head Coach: Eugene Hill (entering 6th season)

Staff: John Joyce, Channin Williams

North Port finished the 2020-21 season 11th at the 3A State Tournament and the Bobcats return nearly all of their point-getters. State Placer Quinn White has graduated, but North Port return a ton of firepower and should push to be a top 5-10 team in 2021-22. Dominic Joyce is back after taking 2nd at 170 as a Sophomore and he is joined by State Qualifiers Sean-Michael Gonzalez, Gannon Wertz, and Vincent Donatelle. All four should expect to be on the podium in Kissimmee.

Whether North Port makes a big jump into the top 10 in 2022 will likely come down to how well Chi Haywood, Canon Locastro, and Carmichael Gonzalez wrestle. Each will look to to take that next step and punch their ticket to the big dance. Keep an eye on Juniors Cale Holmgren and Sam Holman as well as Yanderek Young - each will look to make an impact in 2022. North Port has a solid core of hammers … how high the team climbs will depend on how well the rest of the squad wrestles.

“We are very excited about this upcoming season. We believe District 8 is the toughest district in the state and will prepare us to place high in state as a team. We have four returning state qualifiers with Sean-Michael Gonzalez (126), Gannon Wertz (138), Vincent Donatelle (160), and Dominic Joyce (170.) Dominic Joyce was a state runner up and looks to lead this team to a district title. We are looking for Cale Holmgren, Carmichael Gonzalez, Yanderek Young, Chi Haywood, Canon Locastro, and Sam Holman to take a big step up and punch their tickets to the state tournament. ”

— Coach Hill

Lake Highland Prep (Florida) weren’t the only SE hammers to venture to Spooky Nook (PA) this past weekend, but they are the only ones do so in force (taking much of their squad). SWAT (FL), Roundtree (GA), Raw (NC), The Master’s Academy (FL), Mat Assassins (SC), and others each had individuals go test their mettle against some of the top wrestlers in the Northeast and from around the country.

Winning the Journeymen is a big deal and comes with the coveted hammer - one of the best “trophies” you can win (in my opinion). But Coach Frank Popolizio runs a little different of a tournament - not your standard double elimination 16- or 32-man bracket. It is important to know the specifics when looking at the results below … Wrestlers are put into Groups (A, B or C) and then within pools in each Group. Wrestlers compete with everyone in their pool and then exit into their final “mini bracket”. It affords everyone that attends the opportunity to get multiple matches against similar level competition. Personally I am a big fan of the way Coach Popolizio runs it and the quality of matches each wrestler gets. Some of the weights had round robin (or pool) action for some of the best kids in the country.

So wrestlers in the “A” Group compete for the Hammer - but everyone is looking to win their group and get 4 or so matches during the day.

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Floridians Ethan Rivera and Mikey Tal-Shahar Take Home Hammers

(kind of)

As you can see by the Instagram post - the hammer was seized by TSA. Tal Shahar said “yeah it is back in Baltimore” when I asked him about it. Still some great wrestling this weekend by Tal Shahar, Rivera, and many of the other SE hammers that went north. Below is a breakdown of the action …

Ethan Rivera (FL) - 1st @ 113A Main Event

Rivera won Pool 4 in the 113A Main Event … beating Joseph Sciarrone 5-0, Emmitt Sherlock by forfeit, and Joseph Manfredi 5-1. By winning his pool he was in the semis at 113 with all of the other 113 lb. pool winners. Rivera beat Saoul Prado 4-0 and then Carter Nogle 3-1 to take home the hammer.

Mikey TalShahar (FL) - 1st @ 195A Main Event

TalShahar won Pool 1 in the 195A Main Event … beating Johnny Miller 3-2, Thomas D’Avanzo by forfeit, and then Kaden Cartee by fall. TalShahar then downed Pool 2 winner Michael Bartush 4-3 to claim the hammer.

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Other SE Wrestlers by Weight:

113B - Thomas Giere (AL) - 0-4 finished 5th in 113B

120A - Amantee Mills (GA) - 1-2 in Pool 2 and then lost to Coleman Nogle 5-0 before beating Gavin Bradley to finish 11th

120C - Colin Kacena (FL) - 4-0 finished 1st in 120C

125A - Danny Martinez (FL) - 1-2 in Pool 2 and then won 7-0 over Giovanni Alejandro and 4-2 over Isaac Thornton to finish 9th

125B - Colton Holmes (SC) - 0-2 in Pool 1 and then finished 0-2 in the bracket to finish 12th

130A - David McClelland (FL) - 2-1 in Pool 1 and then McClelland forfeited his final two matches to take 8th

130A - Brady Conlin (FL) - 2-1 in Pool 4 and then won 5-2 over Nathan Taylor before losing 1-0 to Kollin Rath to take 6th

135A - Eligh Rivera (FL) - 3-0 in Pool 3 with a nice 4-3 win over Luke Simcox, River lost to Sam Cartella in the semis and to Koy Buesgans to finish 4th

135A - Andrew Desola (FL) - 0-3 in Pool 4; Desola lost his final two matches to finish 16th

135B - Luis Bazan (FL) - 1-1 in Pool 3 and then 2-0 to finish 5th

140A - Brayden Ivy (TN) - 2-1 with a loss to Gavin Drexler in Pool 2, lost to Zach Hanson 2-1 before downing Matt Henrich to finish 7th

140B - Sean Pitts (TN) - 2-1 in Pool 4, won final two matches to finish 5th

140B - Claudio Torres (FL) - 1-2 in Pool 4, won final two matches to finish 9th

145A - James Latona (AL) - 2-1 in Pool 1 with a 1-0 loss to Jude Swisher, finished 1-1 for 7th

145A - Ethan Mojena (FL) - 1-2 in Pool 3, finished 1-1 for 11th

145B - Joshua Boykin (FL) - 2-1 in Pool 1, 1-1 to finish 7th

145B - Thomas Snipes (SC) - 3-0 in Pool 4 including 6-1 win over Price (NC), finished 1-1 with a loss to Colin Dupill 3-1 to take 2nd

145B - Jeremiah Price (NC) - 2-1 in Pool 4, 2-0 to finish 5th

152A - Dominic Bambinelli (GA) - 1-2 in Pool 1 with losses to Joe Sealey and Jayden Colon, finished 1-1 for 11th

152A - Michael Shannon (FL) - 0-3 in Pool 3, finished 1-1 for 15th

152B - Maxwell Kiel (NC) - 2-0 in Pool 1, finished 0-2 to take 4th

152B - Brandon Cody (FL) - 0-2 in Pool 1, finished 2-0 to take 9th

160A - Colby Dalon (TN) - 1-2 in Pool 2, finished 1-1 to take 10th

182A - Joseph Nicolosi (FL) - 0-2 in Pool 1, finished 1-1 to take 10th

195A - Caleb Beaty (NC) - 1-2 in Pool 2 and then lost to Johnny Miller 6-4 to finish 4th.

195A - Thomas D’Avanzo (FL) - won his first match and then forfeited the rest of his matches.

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LHP’s Mary Manis Claims a Hammer at 100 lbs.

Manis went 3-1 , but edged the rest of the 100 lb field to claim the hammer.

Manis beat Amelia Murphy 17-6, Kayla Batres 9-3, Juliana Alejandro 13-2 before dropping her last match by fall to Julia Horger.

Alejandro and Manis were the only two to finish with 1 loss and because Mary won that head-to-head match she takes home the hammer.

Kyla Oliver finished 4th with a 1-3 record at 112 lbs.

The Fall Classic kicks off this morning in Pennsylvania and will continue through the weekend. This is one of the original tournaments that awards a hammer to the champions and is one of the best “pre-season” tournaments around the country. It also will be one of the handful of tournaments we use when constructing the #dirtydozen rankings (Rankings of the top 12 kids at each weight in the SE).

Where to Watch: FloWrestling

Brackets will be in FloArena

Be sure to click the correct division on the far left side of the page. Be sure to check back in our new SEWrestle+ page to get an in-depth look at all of the action this weekend. In years past - Journeymen has put them into pools (A, B, and C with cross bracketing at the end) … I’m not certain how they will do on the FloArena platform this year. Not sure what is meant by pools and cross-bracketing? Check out our Wrestling 101 page (specifically the 10 or 12-man scramble - which will be fairly similar to how they’ve done it in the past).

Here is a quick look at who is there and who you should watch from the SE:

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106 - none from the SE

113 (28 entrants) - Lake Highland Prep’s (#11 at 106) Ethan Rivera headlines to field along with Missouri’s Draegen Orine (#18). Keep an eye on Carter Nogle (MD), Isiac Paulino (MA), and Carson Wagner (PA). Former Florida hammer Christian Fretwell (now at Wyoming Seminary) should be in the mix as well. Alabama’s Thomas Giere (Thompson) is also in the field at 113.

120 (37 entrants) - 8 wrestlers ranked in the top 20 by flo including Leo Deluca who just won Who’s #1. Three SE wrestlers are part of the group … Matthew Rowland of North Carolina (Pinecrest), Hudson Waldrop of Alabama (McAdory), and Colin Kacena of Florida (Lake Highland Prep).

125 (36 entrants) - Former Floridian Vince Bouzakis comes in as the top ranked 125 (#17). Tons of honorable mention candidates, but Bouzakis has to be considered the favorite. Four SE hammers listed … 3 from Lake Highland Prep: Danny Martinez, Andrew Wittenberg, and Zachary Lewis, plus Colton Holmes of South Carolina (Hillcrest).

130 (32 entrants) - PJ Duke and Tyler Vazquez headline the weight. Eligh Rivera of LHP is one of a handful of honorable mentions that should be in the thick of things. Two other LHP’s in the weight as well - Luis Bazan and Brady Conlin. David McClelland is also listed, but back in his home state of Ohio - McClelland has spent the last two-ish years at LHP.

135 (25 entrants) - Jordan Soraino is the only ranked wrestler at the weight with a bunch of honorable mention candidates. Florida’s Andrew DeSola is the only SE wrestler in the mix.

140 (30 entrants) - Minnesota’s Zach Hanson is ranked #12 at 132 and should be the favorite in this bracket. Tennessee’s Brayden Ivy is listed as an honorable mention and should be in the hunt. Two other Tennesseans - Sean Pitts and Caleb Gumlick as well as LHP’s CJ Torres is also in the bracket.

145 (37 entrants) - Best weight of the tournament? #9 Jude Swisher (Pennsylvania), #10 Pierson Manville (Pennsylvania), #12 Kelvin Griffin (Maine), #13 Kal Miller (Missouri), #15 Dylan Evans (Pennsylvania), and #19 Ethan Mojena of Lake Highland Prep (Florida). Add in another LHP hammer in Josh Boykin, James Latona of Alabama (Thompson), Jeremiah Price of North Carolina (Surry Central) and Thomas Snipes of South Carolina (Hillcrest) and this should be a great weight to watch.

152 (33 entrants) - Former North Carolina hammer Joe Sealey is #8 (now at Wyoming Sem), #4 Nicco Ruiz (CA), and #9 William Henckel (Connecticut) headline the weight. Excited to see Georgia freshman Dominic Bambinelli listed as well as Florida’s Brandon Cody and Michael Shannon (both The Master’s Academy) and Alabama’s Clay Johnston (Vestavia). This is another good, deep weight that shows where you stand with some of the best competition around.

160 (25 entrants) - 5 that are ranked including #9 Jonathan Ley of LHP and 4 others listed as honorable mention. Wask, Fea, Lillard (former Georgia hammer), and Mackay should give Ley a run for the hammer here. Tennessee’s Colby Dalon will be in he mix as well.

170 (18 entrants) - #12 Rune Lawrence of Pennsylvania headlines the weight. No SE wrestlers are listed.

182 (16 entrants) - Headlined by #7 Kole Mulhauser of New York and #10 Ryder Rogotzke of Minnesota. Florida’s Joseph Nicolosi (AHDB) is the only SE wrestler listed.

195 (7 entrants) - Florida’s Mikey Tal Shahar (AHDB) and Thomas D’Avanzo (LHP) as well as Caleb Beaty of North Carolina (Wake Forest) should be in the running for the title.

225 (15 entrants) - Virginia’s Parker Ferrell #14 at 220 is probably the favorite. No SE wrestlers listed.

285 - none from the SE